UPDATED: 12/31/20 *
It’s the end of the year and time to take a look at the Top 10 stories of 2020.
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The year 2020 was truly one for the history books. If something was bound to go wrong, it all collectively seemed to do so in 2020. Granted, the DJ D-Nice online Club Quarantine and the successful launch of the SpaceX rocket were positives — but just about everyone from around the world would agree that it’ll be good riddance when 2020 goes away for good.
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As is our tradition here at OK WASSUP! it’s time to take a look back at the Top 10 stories of 2020.
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10.) STOCK MARKET CRASH
On February 20, 2020, the stock market took a nosedive in a crash that lasted through April 7th. According to Wikipedia, the crash was the fastest fall in global stock markets in financial history and the most devastating crash since the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Fortunately, stocks recovered and re-entered a bull market which continues to this day.
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9.) CANCEL CULTURE
The year 2020 was a good year for “cancel culture” and a chance to right a lot of wrongs.
Several confederate monuments were removed in 2020, including the statue of Robert E. Lee from the US Capitol. Mississippi removed the confederate emblem from its state flag, replacing it with an “In God We Trust” magnolia design. The Washington Redskins football team dropped its offensive name and rebranded as the Washington Football Team. The Cleveland Indians said they will follow suit with a new name in 2021. As of this date, only the Kansas City Chiefs and Golden State Warriors retain offensive Native American names.
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8.) PRINCE HARRY ROYAL SQUABBLE
The once unbreakable relationship between brothers Prince William and Prince Harry of Great Britain took a fatal blow in 2020, prompting Prince Harry to take formal leave from the royal family. Apparently, the rift began when William didn’t approve of Harry marrying American actress Meghan Markle as soon as he did. Additionally, Duchess Meghan wasn’t fond of the formal structure of the royal family. Harry and Meghan petitioned the Queen to be relieved of all official duties and moved to California in 2020 along with their infant son, Archie.
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7.) BLACK/INDIAN/FEMALE VEEP
Sen. Kamala Harris made triple history this year and was among the most notable Top 10 stories of 2020. She became the first person of color to be nominated for the vice-presidency and then the first person of color and the first woman to win the vice-presidency.
She will be sworn-in and will take office alongside President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.
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6.) KOBE BRYANT CRASH
The sports world was rocked in 2020 with the shocking death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant. The retired Lakers basketball star was killed in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2000, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, the pilot, and 6 other passengers as they were traveling to a basketball camp in northern Los Angeles.
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5.) PASSAGES
The world lost a host of luminaries in 2020. Here is a list of notable deaths based on category.
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ENTERTAINMENT
*Dawn Wells (Gilligan’s Island), Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quinones (pop/lock dance pioneer), Nick Gordon (Bobbi Kristina boyfriend), Buck Henry (writer/actor), Terry Jones (Monty Python fame), Jim Lehrer (PBS), Kirk Douglas, Orson Bean, Paula Kelly (actress), Robert Conrad, Ja’Net Dubois (Good Times), James Lipton (Inside the Actors Studio), Bobbi Batista (former CNN anchor), Max Von Sydow (“The Exorcist” actor), Lyle Waggoner, Kenny Rogers, Terrance McNally (playwright), Ellis Marsalis (Wynton’s dad), Bill Withers, John Prine (singer), Brian Dennehey, Roy Horn (Siegfried & Roy), Andre Harrell, Little Richard, Jerry Stiller, Fred Willard, Phyllis George, Gregory Tyree Boyce (actor), Ken Osmond (Leave It To Beaver), Bonnie Pointer (The Pointer Sisters), Carl Reiner, Nick Cordero (Broadway actor), Charlie Daniels (C&W singer), Kelly Preston-Travolta, Naya Rivera, Regis Philbin, Olivia de Havilland, Wilford Brimley (actor), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther star), Ronald “Kool & The Gang” Bell, Diana Rigg (actress), Pamela Hutchinson (“The Emotions” singer), Helen Reddy, Mac Davis (country singer), Eddie Van Halen, Sean Connery, Alex Trebek, Tommy “Tiny” Lister (actor), Charley Pride, Anne Reinking (dancer/director)
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SPORTS
David Stern (former NBA commissioner), Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, John Andretti, Fred “Curly” Neal (original Harlem Globetrotter), Jerry Sloan (former Utah Jazz coach), Cliff Robinson (former NBA player), John Thompson (former Georgetown basketball coach), Tom Seaver (former NY Mets player), Lou Brock (baseball Hall of Famer), Gale Sayers.
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POLITICS
*Luke Letlow (Louisiana congressman-elect), Hosni Mubarak (former president of Egypt), (former Oklahoma) Sen. Tom Coburn, Linda Tripp (Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton figure), Paul O’Neill (former Treasury Secretary under Bush), William Sessions (former FBI director), John Lewis (congressman and civil rights icon), Herman Cain, Brent Scowcroft (former national security advisor), Justice Ruth Badger Ginsburg, David Dinkins (first Black mayor of NYC), Don Fowler (former DNC chair).
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BUSINESS
*Pierre Cardin, B. Smith (restauranteur), Joe Coulombe (Trader Joe’s founder), Jack Welch (former GE chairman), Earl Graves, Sr. (founder of Black Enterprise), Sumner Redstone (Viacom).
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SOCIAL FIGURES
*Joe Clark (“Lean On Me” principal), Katherine Johnson (Hidden Figures), Rev. Joseph Lowery (civil rights leader), Mary Kay Letourneau (teacher who married her student), Zindzi Mandela (daughter of Nelson and Winnie), C.T. Vivian (civil rights activist), Rev. Rance Allen, Chuck Yeager (test pilot).
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4.) BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS
Among the Top 10 stores of 2020 includes the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, which prompted a summer of coast-to-coast protests on behalf of the value of Black lives.
From New York to DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, Des Moines, Detroit, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and all points in between, millions of Americans of all ages, races, and genders took to the streets month after month to protest the repeated killing of predominately Black men and the treatment of Black Americans.
Previously, Black Lives Matter protests were considered a fringe movement exclusively involving Black Americans. However, once other races joined the movement in solidarity, the new energy forced White Americans to pay attention — and to stop calling the police on Blacks for holding a picnic, being on the beach, walking, or other normal activities.
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3.) 2020 ELECTION AND AFTERMATH
In November, millions of Americans broke records and stood in mile-long lines in order to cast their vote for president. More than 160 million votes were cast in the historic election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
On November 7, 2020, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets from coast to coast when it was announced that Donald Trump had been defeated and Joe Biden would be president. An all-day party of dancing, shouting, and high-fives ensued in every major city across the US. History recorded the event as the first time Americans collectively celebrated the loss of a presidential candidate.
Proving that he was a sore loser, a bitter Donald Trump attempted every trick in the book to overturn the election results in his favor but was repeatedly shut down by every federal court in the nation and even the US Supreme Court. To date, he has refused to accept the loss and has stirred his MAGA sycophants into a conspiracy belief against the election and democracy which has prompted protests and violence.
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2.) COVID
In March of 2020, Americans began hearing about a deadly disease that originated in China but had already made its way to the US. People were dying and there was no cure. Beloved actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita announced they had contracted the novel coronavirus. Then the NCAA and NBA announced it was shuttering all games indefinitely in order to prevent spreading the disease. Soon after, every Broadway theater in New York City shut down and the Olympics announced it was postponing its games until 2021. Then, the entire world went on lockdown, closing schools, restaurants, shops, transit, and all forms of entertainment. For at least the first few weeks, the streets across the world were a ghost town.
In Italy, residents gathered on their balconies and sang onto the empty streets. In the US, it became customary for folks to hang out of their windows every evening at 7pm to applaud the doctors, nurses, and first responders who were risking their lives to treat COVID patients in increasingly overcrowded hospitals. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo became “the voice” of the pandemic, providing calm and information that was lacking from The White House. And Donald Trump mostly ignored the disease while mocking the wearing of masks and turning safety measures into a divisive political issue.
Now, 9 months later, the world has seen nearly 80 million COVID cases and almost 2 million deaths. Broadway and movie theaters remain closed. Restaurants, gyms, and schools are shuttered in California and various locales across the country. Masks have become a wardrobe accessory/necessity. And the world is experiencing a new wave of the virus, including a new variant detected in the UK and The Netherlands.
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And, #1 of the Top 10 Stories of 2020 is:
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1.) COVID VACCINE FOUND
In November and after months of helpless illnesses and untimely deaths, Pfizer/BioNTech announced it had found a vaccine that is 90% effective in treating/preventing coronavirus. Not long after, Moderna announced a vaccine that is 95% effective.
Both vaccines are already traversing the world and being inoculated into the arms of front-line workers and the elderly. The vaccine will be available to the general public by spring, with hopes that COVID will be a thing of the past by summer.
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So, there you have it. The Top 10 stores of 2020. Did we leave anything out? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
I always look forward to this every year DJ. You hit every story just right. Some of them I forgot like the stock market crashing and some of the deaths this year too. We list a lot of people. But the best parts are those videos. Looking back on the BLM protests and the election took me back. Good job as always.